Attaching new devices such as new digital video disk (DVD) players or digital video recorders (DVRs) to a network such as a home entertainment network can be a trying experience even for engineers, let alone the customers for whom these products are intended. This is because network registration can entail entering long strings of alpha-numeric characters for IP addresses, wired equivalent piracy (WEP) keys, etc.
An additional problem of transferring data securely is setting up the initial transactions which often means sending some information in the clear. Sometimes this is a “public key” or seed which, if the other side uses the same algorithm, produces a real encryption key. However, if the algorithm is known, the system is compromised during the clear text transmission.
With the above recognitions in mind, the present invention is provided.